In Love and Likeness
by sinisterwonderland
Summary: Pairing: RenjixIchigo Renji visits Ichigo's school and they find another option to him freeloading at Urahara's place.
1. Chapter 1

AN: This is my first ever fanfic. Don't expect much from it. It comes from the bit in the Bleach anime where Renji visits Ichigo's school – the first bit of the first paragraph is as close to quoting as I could remember. I can't remember where it was placed in the anime, so I might get some of the details wrong.

Chapter 1

Ichigo glared at Renji. His 1980's attire was causing hysteria among the students at the school. He knew Renji didn't have to have come. And to top it all off he had told everyone Ichigo was his cousin. And Rukia wouldn't stop laughing.

Renji glared back at Ichigo. They had just been arguing over this. How was he supposed to know what was in fashion in the world of the living?

Mizuiro laughed: "You two are exactly the same! I can tell you're related!"

Ichigo and Rengi jumped back from him an identical expression of horror on their faces. Rukia started laughing again.

"Just go back to Urahara's shop," Ichigo hissed.

Renji regained some of his earlier cockiness. "I'll be waiting," he called as he walked away, thumbs in pockets.

Ichigo and Rukia returned to Urahara's shop later that day.

"I suppose you want to see the freeloader," said Jinta, sweeping up outside the shop.

"Renji?" said Ichigo. "Yeah."

Just then, Rukia's hollow detector went off. She took it out her pocket and looked at it. "By the school," she said.

"I'll get it," Ichigo said. "I'll come and yell at Renji later."

Rukia nodded and knocked his spirit out his body. "See ya," said Ichigo, and left.

When he got back to the shop about half an hour later, Rukia had already left. Ichigo walked into the shop and pulled back the door to the back. "Renji-" he yelled. Urahara appeared round the corner. "My, my," he said, tapping his face with his fan. "No need to shout. The freeloader's just through here."

Ichigo stormed into the living room. "Renji-" he said again, then couldn't think of what to say next. Renji was lying on the floor next to the circular table. His goggles were over his eyes. They were alone. "I don't believe for one moment you were actually ordered to come to Karakura town," Ichigo said, sitting down on the opposite side of the table.

"No, I was," said Renji. "To check up on you, mainly. To see you weren't causing trouble. At least, not too much trouble." He smirked. "Shut up," muttered Ichigo. He couldn't think how to argue against this. The silence began to become awkward.

Ichigo broke it: "Well why'd you have to wear that? Or tell everyone you were my cousin? People like Mizuiro just say things-" he stopped. He hadn't meant to bring that up, because it was unnervingly true – Renji and Ichigo were very similar. Renji sat up.

"I don't know what people are wearing. And I had to have a cover story," he said irritably.

"You could've said you were Rukia's cousin. Or Chad's, or Inoue's, or Ishida's."

"Being your cousin was more believable though."

They thought about what Mizuiro had said. Awkwardly, Ichigo stood to leave. Urahara appeared around the edge of the door. "Don't go yet," he said ominously and slowly. "I made tea."

Ichigo shivered. "I'll stay."

Urahara came in with the tea, then disappeared out the door again. Before he left, he caught Renji's eye. Renji looked away.

"They all hate me," he growled to himself. "Calling me "freeloader" and making me do all these chores…"

Ichigo looked at him "Well, you don't have to stay here, do you."

"Where else would I go? I still have to eat!"

Ichigo thought about this. "You could come and stay with me. Inoue's been dying to have Rukia stay with her. She doesn't like her staying with me for some reason. Not that I want to have you. But if you actually have to be here."

Renji grinned. "I might take you up on that," he said, adjusting his goggles.

Ichigo finished his tea. "Well, I'm going now. If you wanna come, you'd better come now. I'm not going to offer again, you know." Renji stood up to leave. "Sure," he said.

Behind the door the four residents of Urahara's sighed with relief. "We got rid of the freeloader!" said Jinta triumphantly.

"All the more work for you," said Urahara.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

AN: There is some yaoi stuff later. Promise.

As Ichigo had suspected, his father wasn't happy about Rukia's departure. "She was like a daughter," he said to anyone who would listen, "Just like a daughter."

Rukia didn't seem to mind moving out, and Inoue was delighted at being able to host her. "You'll have to sleep in my room though," Ichigo told Renji. "We don't have a spare room; Rukia slept in the girls' room." He started upstairs. "And don't be alarmed if assistant captain Yachiru is in the room in the middle of the night; she's just looking for candy." Renji was about to follow him up to his room when Yuzu called that dinner was ready.

Over dinner came the inevitable breakdown on Renji's past. "So, you said you were Rukia's brother," said Ishii. "I'm sorry about your parents. It was tragic when Rukia told us, just tragic." Yuzu nodded in agreement. Renji looked confused for a second before he remembered what Ichigo had told him. "Yes," he said flatly. "I tried to stay in our home town and look for work, but when that failed I decided to follow my beloved little sister here." His monosyllabic acting was grating. "He was destitute, but didn't want to leave his parents' spirits," Ichigo continued in a toneless voice that was no better than Renji's. But the emotive language had Yuzu and Ishii nearly in tears. Ichigo and Renji caught each others eye across the table, and both of them were thinking: "Thank goodness Rukia told us exactly what to say earlier."

Over the next few days Renji took to copying Ichigo's actions almost exactly, in order to, as he claimed, "adjust to the world of the living". The result of this was that more and more people commented on how similar they were, so Renji quickly stopped. Their frequent arguments helped reinforce the sense of family, and after Keigo managed to persuade Renji who persuaded Ichigo to join his sister's kendo club, their intense, long, competitive matches made people laugh and remark that everything from their facial expressions to their battle stances was identical. All this was much to the mirth of Ichigo's friends, especially Rukia, who knew that the two were not even remotely related.

Ichigo and Renji began to find each other increasingly irritating, but also increasingly good company. Ichigo took to thumping Renji at night if he snored, but he wouldn't have traded the hours of practice fighting under Urahara's shop with him for anything. Renji hated Ichigo's isn't-it-obvious manner when it came to things to do with the world of the living (although Rukia's patronisation was just as bad, especially when it came to juice boxes).

For the class drama production of "A comedy of errors" for the school's cultural festival, Ichigo and Renji were cast as the leading twins, but quickly dropped and given roles in prop construction after it became clear that neither of them could act in the slightest. Rukia insisted on taking on prop design alone, so an awful lot of the props they had to build looked distinctly rabbit shaped. Ishida, of course, excelled in costume design.

Fortunately for the audience, an increased number of hollows around the school, drawn by the extra spiritual pressure, meant that Renji and Ichigo were kept busy and the props never actually got built. This however, annoyed their teacher somewhat, who sent them home with the unfinished props to finish.

A couple of nights before the performance, Yuzu took it to herself to complete the props for Ichigo, and to sneak them into Ichigo's room to be a surprise for him in the morning. Ichigo woke up as she shut the door. Slightly annoyed at being woken, he turned over to go back to sleep. He was just drifting off, when Renji started snoring. At first, Ichigo tried to ignore it, but after a while he took the duvet out his ears and got out of bed to punch Renji. As he walked sleepily across the room his foot caught on one of the props and he tripped forward, losing his balance and falling forward to land on top of Renji. "Ouch," he said to himself quietly. Still asleep, Renji breathed heavily. "That guy could sleep through Hueco Mundo," Ichigo said to himself as he struggled to lift himself off Renji. Suddenly, unconsciously, Renji's arms reached up and snaked around his neck, pulling him back down onto him. "Ichigo," muttered Renji in his sleep. Ichigo froze in shock for a second, his face next to Renji's on the pillow, lying on Renji's unconscious body with Renji's arms around his neck. Then, being careful not to wake Renji and reveal their awkward predicament, he removed Renji's arms from around his neck, pushed himself up and crept back to his own bed, avoiding the props on the floor. Renji's snoring started up again, but Ichigo didn't try to do anything about it. He couldn't sleep anyway. There was too much to think about.


End file.
